Main Findings

-The Supreme Court and the Tbilisi City Court have not been publishing judicial statistics on their websites since 2023.

-According to the Supreme Court, statistics related to the most common offense (Article 174¹ of the Administrative Code of Georgia) in relation to the ongoing protests are not kept separately.

- The general statistics, provided by the Supreme Court, on the administrative cases in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 do not include data on who (administrative bodies or individuals and legal entities) won the administrative disputes considered by the courts.  

-The available statistics up to 2024 show that the share of administrative disputes concluded in favor of individuals and legal entities has decreased significantly in recent years. For example, administrative disputes concluded in favor of individuals and legal entities in 29.1% of the cases in 2023, while in 2013 this figure stood at 63.3%.

-According to the Tbilisi City Court, the court does not have the resources to compile statistics related to administrative cases (including those related to the protests) considered by the court and/or copies of decisions on such cases.

-The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not publish the protocols and statistics on fines issued against protest participants.

The Georgian Dream has been using a variety of repressive measures to put an end to the protests that have been ongoing since November 28, 2024. The court system is an important participant in this process.

One of the most important indicators for assessing the scope of repressions in the country are judicial statistics.

Courts of various instances of Georgia compile statistical data according to statistical forms established by the Supreme Court. These forms are then sent to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in turn compiles statistical reports based on the data reflected in these forms. For years, the Supreme Court had been publishing the main statistical data from common courts on its website every quarter, while annually publishing a collection of statistical data “Justice in Georgia”. The latter contained consolidated statistical data of common courts in more detail. Specific courts (city court, court of appeals) also published on their websites the main information on past cases considered within the courts.

Following 2021, the publication of statistical information on the website of the Supreme Court was proceeding with significant delays, which was explained by the process of implementing the new court website and new software for compiling statistics. Despite these issues, following active advocacy by IDFI, statistical data for 2021-2023 got published on the court’s website. Nevertheless, no judicial statistics have been published on the website of the Supreme Court since 2023.

Since 2023, judicial statistics have not been updated on the website of the Tbilisi City Court as well. With the limited proactive access to judicial statistics, IDFI attempted to obtain information on court cases of high public interest through freedom of information requests. Specifically, on 17 April 2025, IDFI addressed the Supreme Court of Georgia (the main responsible and coordinating body for the compilation of judicial statistics) and the Tbilisi City Court (the main court hearing disputes related to the ongoing protests) with a request for statistics on violations of the Rules for organizing and holding assemblies and demonstrations (Article 174¹ of the Administrative Code) and the administrative cases in general reviewed in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. 

The Supreme Court explained to IDFI that violations related to Article 174¹ of the Administrative Code were not recorded separately in the statistical report forms and that general statistical data from the courts is, as a rule, published on the court’s website. However, as mentioned earlier, this data has not been published on the Supreme Court’s website since 2023, while IDFI was requesting data from 2024 (the entire year) and the first quarter of 2025.

Tbilisi City Court explained to IDFI that statistical data is not compiled in the requested form and that obtaining and processing this data would require significant time and resources from the court. It should be noted that this court's explanation also applied to the request for the type of statistics that the city court is already obligated to process, according to the statistical forms established by the Supreme Court. For example, statistical data on administrative cases heard by the court, who had filed the dispute (administrative body or individual), and in whose favor it was concluded. Tbilisi City Court also refused to provide copies of rulings issued on administrative offense cases, citing the same reasoning.

After IDFI submitted an administrative complaint, the Supreme Court only provided general and incomplete statistics on administrative offense cases considered by the court. The information, among others, did not include data on the number of cases concluded in favor of individuals or administrative bodies. The desire to conceal this data was possibly predicated on the contents of the statistical information, which would show that the number of cases being concluded in favor of individuals has been declining in step with the ongoing repressions. This assumption is solidified by the joint report by civil society organizations, which pointed to administrative offense cases initiated against over a thousand individuals within the context of the ongoing protests. The courts usually impose fines or administrative imprisonment as punishment on these individuals. In addition, data available up to 2024 shows that the share of cases against administrative bodies that were concluded in favor of individuals or legal entities has decreased significantly in recent years. For example, administrative disputes concluded in favor of individuals and legal entities in 29.1% of the cases in 2023, while in 2013 this figure stood at 63.3%. In this regard, statistics have been worsening since 2018.  

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has also not made public statistical information on the administrative liabilities imposed on protest participants. For example, the Ministry did not respond at all to IDFI’s public information request on the statistics concerning the protocols and fines issued against protest participants.

Within the framework of administrative case proceedings, to the request for information on statistics on oral administrative hearings conducted by the Tbilisi Police Department and the notices sent to individuals to participate in them, the Ministry explained that they did not compile such statistical data

The Ministry of Internal Affairs published statistics on administrative offenses on its website. The information fully covers violations of traffic rules. Statistical data on other administrative offences, however, is provided selectively. For example, no statistics are found on administrative offenses in relation to Article 174¹ (violation of rules for holding and organizing assemblies and demonstrations) under “Other Offenses”. 

Monitoring results show that the bodies responsible for the processes against protest participants (MIA, courts) refuse to publish official statistics on various offenses related to the ongoing protests. Moreover, no judicial statistics have been published at all since 2024. 

IDFI believes that access to judicial statistics is being restricted due to its contents (the share of decisions in favor of full acquittal may in fact be zero). This would make the scope of the repressions in the country even clearer and show the willing participation of the judiciay in this process.